


Four Hearts, Seven Seas, Twelve Moons

by escribo



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, M/M, Magic, Mystery, Spooky carnivals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-10 00:00:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17415071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escribo/pseuds/escribo
Summary: Adam paused, thinking that perhaps he was going to get a lecture on the nature of love or faith. He narrowed his eyes at Persephone as he considered his answer.  Her look was inscrutable.“Magic isn’t real,” he said again because it was safest and because he didn’t want to admit that he didn’t believe in love either.“Isn’t it? Listen to you, Adam Parrish. I’ll make a deal with you."





	Four Hearts, Seven Seas, Twelve Moons

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so bad at summaries. I wanted to write a Scooby Doo style mystery, god knows why. Luckily, I don't think that's precisely what happened here :D Still, mystery! magic! a creepy carnival!

When Adam was in the fourth grade, he thought maybe he would become a magician when he grew up. Even at ten, he hadn’t meant it as a fanciful wish but felt perhaps it could be a practical career option. It started with a biography of Harry Houdini, read over three successive visits to his school library where he hid in the stacks to conceal the fact that he had no lunch and no money to buy any. At ten, Adam felt he had already mastered the craft of holding his breath and controlling his fears. Mostly.

That long, hot June, he practiced a stunning (for a small boy) array of card and coin tricks mastered from _A Book of Magic for Young Magicians_ , a book that weighed heavily on his conscience since he’d stolen it on the last day before summer vacation. During the days when he was tucked up in his sweltering bedroom with nothing to do, he practiced the Mechanic’s Grip and Magician’s Palm. He often wished the book had addressed a simple vanishing trick. He thought it would have come in more helpful. Still, his best trick had been to convince himself that on his eleventh birthday a letter would arrive and he would be whisked away never to be seen in Henrietta again.

He was rather unsurprised when his birthday passed by with no notice from either his parents or a secret school of witchcraft. It didn't matter that he was too practical to have truly believed it. The disappointment convinced him that there was no magic in the world, not really, and he returned his deck of cards to his father’s nightstand without being caught—a clever bit of sleight of hand for which he should have given himself more credit—and buried the book into the garbage bin where his mom couldn’t find it.

Not that the tossing out a book meant that its knowledge would follow. 

 

****

Six Years Later

“Show me again.”

Adam sighed, regretting that he had demonstrated _The Four Burglars_ card trick to Blue. He refused to admit that he remember any others from that long ago obsession but carefully went through this one slowly for the fourth time. 

“It’s not real magic, Blue,” he complained.

“It looks real.”

“It’s just a trick. Look.”

“No,” she said, covering his hand with her own. “Don’t show me how it works.”

“Don’t show you how what works?” Persephone pushed the back door open with her hip, a tray with two teacups and two slices of pie balanced on it. She knelt down, her skirts dusting the planks of the porch to let Blue and Adam collect their snacks.

“Adam knows magic.”

“Does he now?” Persephone turned her wide eyes on Adam and Adam wanted to turn away from her scrutiny but forced himself still.

“It’s just a stupid card trick.”

“Show me.”

Persephone sat on the porch behind them and Adam had to twist to lay out the cards. He shuffled the deck in his hand carefully, trying not to think about his audience. He’d never had one before besides Blue and it made him clumsy. He went through the trick again, Persephone dutifully watching then clapping her hands at the end.

“That’s quite a nice bit of magic.”

Adam’s cheeks went red at her praise but he shook his head, unwilling to accept it. “It’s really not. I just learned it out a book a long time ago so it’s not really magic. It’s not even that clever.”

“No?”

Adam shook his head again. In his hands, he was passing the deck of cards back and forth through his long fingers, not trying to show off as he had been with Blue. With Persephone, he just wanted to avoid her eyes and the way she watched him so carefully. 

“Here,” she said after a minute when the only sounds were the well-worn cards sliding against one another anda a dog howling at the full moon as it rose above the tree line, so bright it obscured the stars. “Finish your tea and I’ll show you a bit of my magic in return.”

Adam sipped at his tea, blowing across it carefully when he burnt his tongue. Blue laughed at him, bumping their shoulders together. Persephone sat quietly watching the sky with a small smile playing on her lips. Above them, the moon moved slowly across the sky. Their neighbor yelled at the dog to come inside and then let their screen door slam shut. After a bit, Adam held out his cup, knowing what to expect when he came to 300 Fox Way.

“Finished? Delightful. So you don’t believe in magic, Adam Parrish?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Nor witches or ghosts or anything you can’t see with your own two eyes or hold with your own two hands?”

Adam paused, thinking that perhaps he was going to get a lecture on the nature of love or faith. He narrowed his eyes at Persephone as he considered his answer. Her look was inscrutable.

“Magic isn’t real,” he said again because it was safest and because he didn’t want to admit that he didn’t believe in love either.

“Isn’t it? Listen to you, Adam Parrish. I’ll make a deal with you. A deal with both of you. How old will you be on your next birthday?”

“Seventeen.”

“Alright. I’m going to give you a prediction and if it doesn’t come true by the time the clock strikes midnight on Halloween then we’ll have it your way. There’s no magic in the world.”

She said it as a challenge but Adam thought about how there’s no magic because he doesn’t believe in anything. There’s no ghosts or witchcraft. No monsters beneath his bed, just the one that was his father. 

“How will we know? If it’s true or not.”

Persephone tossed her head back and laughed. In the moonlight, she could have been any age. “Oh, you’ll know, Adam.”

“What about Blue?”

Blue shook her head and tossed the remnants of her cup into the yard, using her finger to clean out the leaves. “I live in a house of psychics. I’m good.”

“Should I not then?”

“You don’t believe, remember?”

He did.

“Hold your cup in your left hand,” Persephone advised, “and swirl it three times. Tip it over on your plate.”

For a long moment, they listened to the night again. From far away they could hear the sound of a train whistle. Adam shifted again, tucking his knee beneath his chin and wrapping both arms around his leg. There was the first chill of fall in the air. He could smell it along with the wood smoke. Persephone picked up his teacup and turned it over in her hands, tipping it to let the moonlight shine down on it. She hummed again.

“Is it bad?” Adam asked because he couldn’t help himself.

“I see…” she started then trailed off. She frowned at the cup then turned it once more. “Adventure,” she said.

“What kind of adventure?”

“A quest. You won’t be alone on it.”

“Do I go, too?” Blue asked. She raised up on her knees to try to look in the cup but Persephone batted her hands away.

“You didn’t want to know.” Persephone aimed a smile at Blue to temper her words but her eyes never left Adam’s cup. “You’ll find something at the end you didn’t expect.”

“Like what?”

“It’s not a catalogue. Just an impression.”

“But that could mean anything. I could get an A in calculus this term and I’m not expecting that.”

“Yes, you are,” Blue said.

“You know what I mean. That could mean anything and then you’ll have won.”

“Do you truly hate the idea of having to admit there are things in this world that exist that you can’t explain away with science?” Persephone asked. 

“No,” he said, dragging it out because really his answer was yes. He couldn’t admit that believing in magic was bound up with his parents and his past. It made him think about his ten-year-old self and how every time he learned a new trick, he thought he was just that much closer to finding some way to change his fortunes. That it was somehow easier to accept that he would be stuck in Henrietta forever because there was no magic to show him the way out. He shook his head, suddenly feeling dangerously close to tears. 

Persephone hummed again as she stared at him. Adam blinked his eyes and gulped in a breath of cold air, trying to chase away the ache he felt in his heart. He watched as she turned the cup in her hands and then leaned toward the house into the circle of light from the fixture near the door. 

“A treasure,” she said decisively and Adam tried not to feel as though she was simply trying to cheer him up.

“A treasure?” Blue perked up and tried to look in the cup again but Persephone wouldn't say anything else and her smile gave nothing away. She stood up gracefully, her hands full of the tray, cups, and plates. 

“What kind of treasure?” Adam asked. He still didn't trust that there would be adventure or treasure but treasure at least sounded promising, more promising than magic.

“The kind you can hold in your hands,” Persephone said with a smile. With that, Persephone took a deep breathe in and let it out slowly then turned to go back inside the warm kitchen.

“Wait though!" Blue called to her back as she followed Persephone. "I have so many questions. Is it near? How long will it take?”

Adam could hear Blue peppering Persephone with questions as they went into the house, the screen door banging behind them. He looked his watch. He would need to leave soon if he wanted to get to the trailer ahead of his father. Still, it took a few minutes before Adam unfolded himself and stepped out into the yard. The wind had picked up slightly, a cold breeze that wound around his ankles like a cat. 

A treasure he could hold in his hands probably wouldn't be enough to help him leave Henrietta behind. He felt like he'd always be stuck here. Even with the chance of going with Boyd on the rally circuit during the summer and probably community college after, he'd likely always be trapped here, like his parents. The thought made anger unfurl in his chest and he took two more quick steps as if he could outrun it.

Adam could feel the pressure of tears build behind his eyes again and cursed under his breath because it made him feel better. He deliberately uncurled the fists his hands had made at his sides and cursed again before counting to ten and breathing heavily through his nose. 

A thin line of clouds drifted across the moon, dimming its bright light, and Adam looked up. He could finally make out pinpricks of stars. "This might be my life," he whispered to the brightest of them, half a wish and half a promise. "But I'm not him. I'm going to be different."

Another cold wind blew down from the mountain, this time stronger, nearly knocking him off his feet. As the trees bent and waved, a shiver building deep in his bones as he pulled his thin jacket tighter around his thin body, the star he had wished on grew brighter. Adam squeezed his eyes shut and when he opened them both wind and star were gone, the night quiet, and the full moon shining brightly down again.

“Treasure,” Blue proclaimed as she stepped back outside, startling him. “She won’t say anything else.”

“That’s alright. It was just for fun, right?” He asked, his voice distracted as he searched the sky.

“I wouldn’t mind an adventure, though,” Blue said. She came up beside him and leaned her head against his shoulder.

“What sort of adventure?”

“I don’t know? Anything. I just want something to happen.”

Adam nodded as he scanned the sky one more time. There was nothing there, he decided. Just his imagination. Certainly nothing magical. "The treasure would do me more good."

"God, I know, right? I would buy a house and not have to share a bathroom anymore. What would you do with it?"

“I would buy a car or, I don't know. A ticket out of here and just go.”

Blue looked up at him, stricken because she knew so much more about him than he wished she did, but he couldn't look back.

"I would miss you," she whispered.

"It doesn't matter. A treasure you can hold in your hands," he quoted. "That doesn't sound like anything that be worth a lot."

"Maybe, maybe not. You never know with Persephone."

"I should go." He stood still for a minute, his eyes on the moon before he shook his head. He couldn't deny the it felt like the start of something. He was too practical to hope it was something good. "Good night, Blue."

"Good night, Adam."


End file.
